VIDEO: York YMCA takes a Saturday look-back at swimming tradition with some 1940’s-era strokes

Though he wasn’t able to defend his 200 fly national title, Michigan junior Dylan Bosch was named the conference’s Swimmer of the Year, and his coach Mike Bottom earned swimming Coach of the Year honors.

Hilary Caldwell broke onto the international scene in the 200 backstroke in 2013 where she won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Barcelona, and this week she’ll be fighting for a spot on the 2015 World Championship roster.

Deep in the heart of Texas Eddie Reese has been coaching the Longhorns since 1978, churning out world-class athletes and creating a historic program which resulted this weekend in tying him as the winningest coach in college swimming.

At the end of a three-and-a-half hour Saturday workout, the York YMCA coaches took an opportunity to teach the team about its own Olympic tradition and the major technical changes in the last 60-some years of swimming.

York YMCA has produced one Olympic medalist, Bob Sohl, who won bronze in the 200 breast at the 1948 London Games.

The York coaches taught the swimmers about the evolution of swimming strokes since those 1948 Games, even allowing the athletes a chance to swim the three competitive strokes of the day (butterfly had yet to be officially recognized as its own stroke until 1952). Some swimmers even got so into the re-creation that they took off caps and goggles to make things more authentic.

The video above shows a snippet of the swimmers taking off for their 1940s-style 150 IM. Check it out for a little ‘blast from the past’ and leave any drastic changes in the sport you remember in the comments section.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson just can’t stay away from the pool. A competitive career sixteen years and running wasn’t enough for this native Minnesotan, who continues to get his daily chlorine fix. A lifelong lover of writing, Jared now combines the two passions as Senior Reporter for SwimSwam.com, covering swimming at every …